Paranormal Activity (2007)

It turns out some sort of demon thing was the real low-budget monster.

I didn't have high hopes for this. 2 and 3 were the actual recommendations and I don't often like found-footage or haunted house/people movies.

It's hard to make a good movie without any budget and I don't think they did. Aspects of it worked: single location made sense, the diegetic camera was good, and I had no complaints about the effects.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to the movie to justify that nothing really happened in it. If there was more characterization, or more lore, or a stronger sense of suspense, I think this could have worked [NB With a ~7000x return, this movie clearly worked financially].

If you want to watch a better:

micro-budget film: Primer

movie where nothing happens: Anything by Tarkovsky

movie with this rough plot: Oculus

Incidentally, Oculus was made by Mike Flanagan, who also made Shocktober #1, Hush. I guess I should check out his other stuff